Humorous illustrations

When Dr. Charles Lowery preaches, he uses humorous illustrations galore. Being a scientist by training, I can’t tell a joke, so I envy that. Yesterday, while preaching at CFBC, he had the crowd totally involved with such lines as “Do your kids carry around a picture of you in their wallet? Do they show it to their friends, asking ‘Want to see what my parents dressed liked 40 years ago?’? He was making the point that we all need encouragement and we don’t get it as often as we should. I hope his blog encourages you to locate and use good illustrations, demonstrations, exercises and object lessons in this series of lessons out of Ezekiel based on the LifeWay Explore the Bible Series.

Curt, my co-teacher, used the children’s book Tootle, the train that wanted to be a Chicago Flyer, to help us picture the value of paying attention and staying on the track in order to accomplish our goals. It was a very memorable illustration. Similarly, Dr. Lowery pictured “life is like a movie” to help us understand that the Lord is a director controlling the shots. The end result will turn out for our best because of His faithfulness. Changing to a golf game metaphor, Dr. Lowery said he liked to play “scramble” with a pro because he played better when he hit the pro’s shots. God is the pro, and we live best when we follow his leadership. That fit perfect with the first lesson out of Ezekiel.

This week we start on a lesson entitled “Living by the Lord’s Values.” Links are posted on the right side of this page to lesson commentaries beyond that found in the quarterly leaders guide. This week our goal is to locate stories and illustrations that we can tell to help learners practice living the Lord’s values.